Fortune's Children

Vanderbilt: the very name signifies wealth. The family patriarch, the Commodore, built up a fortune that made him the worlds richest man by 1877. Yet, less than fifty years after the Commodores death, one of his direct descendants died penniless, and no Vanderbilt was counted among the worlds richest people. Fortunes Children tells the dramatic story of all the amazingly colorful spenders who dissipated such a vast inheritance.